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In pictures: Nature's 12 days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me... a partridge walking on the street. We have given this classic carol a natural twist using your Springwatch Flickr group photos. Gordon Linton snapped this red-legged partridge: “I followed this bird as he was eating grit from the road,” he said.

The second gift was a pair of turtle doves. These birds often crop up in verse as symbols of devoted love due to their mournful song and strong pair bonds. Kathleen Everitt took this on a photographic holiday and said “they only stayed for about a minute so I just had time to take a few shots and they were gone".

The carol continues on the third day with the gift of three French hens. As domesticated animals are not accepted in the Flickr groups, we started thinking laterally. We went for this striking female hen harrier in flight. It was captured by Phil Boardman earlier this year.

We often incorrectly sing of four calling birds as the fourth gift. It is accepted that the original gift was actually four colly birds, meaning birds that were black. Robert Trevis-Smith used a clever technique to underexpose this image and said: “It works best with blackbirds because they sort of blend into the dark background.”

The carol continues with five gold rings. Our interpretation of this gift is that they are ring-necked pheasants. “I had put some food on the rock for finches to come and feed…when [the pheasants] thought it was clear they came out to feed,” said photographer Ivan Ellison.

Six geese-a-laying is an unusual gift to receive and quite a handful. These greylag geese were taken in a stubble field near Culloden in Inverness, Scotland by Lewis Mackenzie. “I saw these three geese on their own and liked the way they were walking away, looking back towards where I was standing,” he said.

Swans are both graceful and beautiful and would be a magnificent seventh gift from your true love. Spoilt for choice we went with this mute swan from Alison Brown to represent the seven swans-a-swimming. She said: “It was lovely to see its feathers raised but I think it was unhappy as I hadn't brought any food.”

Eight maids-a-milking was always going to be a challenge. But stepping up to the bucket are these highland cows photographed by Susan Pittman, who said they “lined up and posed along the skyline just right”. Susan took the photo beside the back road from Gairloch to Redpoint in Wester Ross.

Nothing represents the gift of nine ladies dancing better than these cranes; the unique and spectacular behaviour has been imitated in various human cultures since the Stone Age. Norman West took this photo at Slimbridge and said: "They delighted all those present with their gyrating dance performance.”

These distant boxing hares were captured by Penelope Malby in Norfolk earlier this year, “A very lucky shot - using a car roof to rest the camera on,” she told BBC Nature. This is our wildlife inspired interpretation of ten lords-a-leaping.

It is no surprise that we did not have any images of 11 pipers piping, however we did find this spectacular shot of a green sandpiper by Richard Nicoll. After the reeds had been cut back it “allowed very good views of these waders coming in to land in the early morning sunlight,” he said.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping… well you know how it goes. “Woodpeckers are very wary but, with patience, opportunities such as this do arise,” according to photographer Mick Lobb. Advertising their presence, they are nature’s own drummers.

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